


We're standing face-to-face with our own human race

by cutebutpsyco



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: All of this is a missing scene, Canon-Typical Behavior, F/M, Fandom Trumps Hate, Joanna Lannister's POV, Missing Scene, Not Targaryens friendly, Pre-Canon, Relationship Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:54:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23640394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutebutpsyco/pseuds/cutebutpsyco
Summary: 267 AC, Casterly RockThe court moves from King's Landing to Casterly Rock after the dead of Tytos Lannister's. Joanna Lannister is the only person who knows the man behind the cold figure of Tywin Lannister, Hand of the King, she has been known this for a long time.
Relationships: Joanna Lannister/Tywin Lannister
Kudos: 10
Collections: Fandom Trumps Hate 2019





	We're standing face-to-face with our own human race

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, going back to post for this fandom. Not that I've ever stopped to be interested in it, just Marvel hit me like a truck. Anyways, it's nice to be back, especially with a fic for this pair. I tried a new fic style which is this relationship study thing, and I had a lot of fun writing it.  
> Special thanks to the wonderful and super patient joannalannister on Tumblr who gave me the opportunity. I'm really sorry for the long waiting, life happened and last year hadn't been the easiest of them all, still, I hope this will make up even if a little bit and I really, really hope you'll like it. 
> 
> All the years indicated here have been taken from joanna's timeline which is a super accurate and enormous work. I feel really blessed on having it and, of course, all credits to her. Without this work, I wouldn't have been able to put this little thing together. 
> 
> I think I wrote in the tag everything it was needed to be said, but if not, just let me know and I'll add something. This is very much from Joanna's point of view because I don't even know, I found interesting writing from a character we know so little about. Most of her characterization comes from what little we know about her, so I hope I didn't get her too off character. This said the canon-typical behaviour tag is basically (internalized) sexism which appears sometimes in Joanna's thoughts. I mean, I'm sure she was very politically savvy and that Tywin respected her positions, but she's well aware that this can't be "public".
> 
> As always, not beta-d; nothing belongs to me, the last quote is from GGRM and the title is from "Meet me on the battlefield" by Svrcina (which I've probably already used, but I love this song).

\-- 267 AC, Casterly Rock --

A single sigh left Joanna’s lips while her eyes trailed down toward the yard already so filled with people getting ready to follow their Lord and Lady’s orders. A part of her wished she could just send them away, pretend nothing was going to happen and just close up in that golden palace of hers. But she knew this wasn’t possible, she knew they both had duties toward a king who was invading her house just to mock the loss of her own Lord husband. 

People from all over the Seven Kingdoms were waiting for nothing different to see what kind of man Tywin was going to be, but the truth was that, deep down in her mind, Joanna already knew. She has seen him, ruling the Westerlands in the shadows since the moment his father got ill. She knew the man that was hiding behind the fame of the Lions of Casterly Rock. She was probably the person who knew him the best. And she knew that Tywin would have proved himself for the person he was, and, still, she wished for that farce to be over soon.

She heard steps coming closer from her back and all she did to acknowledge the newcomer was straight her back, her right hand clasping against the windowsill she was leaning on a moment before. She had a pretty clear idea of who the person who just entered might be. There were just a small number of people trusted enough to enter the Lord and Lady’s personal chambers without being announced and these were, but for Cersei and Jaime, the Master or the Lord himself. And she could recognize the sound of her children’s steps even in the dark. 

“Tywin,” She greeted her husband without turning her back to look at him. The man stepped closer, reaching Joanna’s side and letting his jade eyes running to the horizon, far from everything they could really see. She noticed that, as she noticed the little wrinkles starting to form at the corners of his eyes. She wished she was able to soothe them away. She knew better, though. She knew that when he was feeling that way, it was better not to say anything. “When will the King arrive?”

She had to ask. She wished she didn’t because Tywin turned his eyes on her and there was a different light in them. His jaw clenched just once before he focused back on Joanna’s face. She didn’t know what to think, but something in his expression told the woman that neither of them was going to like the following words: “The court was a couple of days behind me and our guard.”

“Everything will be ready by then,” She nodded, and couldn’t help but notice those fierce eyes of Tywin ran on her pale skin. His hand moved closer to her arm, still resting against the frame of the window from where they were surveilling the entire yard, a soft squeeze against the sleeve of her soft dress was everything she needed to understand that something was bothering Tywin more than he gave to see. 

“Will it?” The man’s voice was steady, and Joanna knew it wasn’t uncertainty that pushed Tywin to ask that question. He knew that it would eventually be, but there were other hidden questions behind the one he asked. Questions for which she didn’t have any answer. 

She knew that behind the façade he was showing, Tywin knew that it would have been the moment when people saw him for the person he really was as if he needed another way to prove it. He didn’t, that was what Joanna was sure about. He already proved himself, he showed the Seven Kingdoms what he could do. And yet, people would have spoken, because there was something they feared about Tywin. She saw behind all the voices, behind every person who believed he was lesser than a man that her lord husband showed the world to be. They were afraid. Afraid of the man he could turn into, afraid of the man who dared to stand in front of his vessels and punished them because they wanted to raise themselves higher than they should have. 

“Yes,” She answered, raising her eyes, this time to fix them into the golden green of her lord husband. A smirk crooked through his sealed lips while he turned his hand so that their fingers were brushing. 

“I’ll be in my solarium if you’ll need me,” He said, after a moment of silence. Reassurances from him weren’t necessary, not for Joanna, she could totally understand that he was grateful for what she had done, for how she was taking things into her hands. It has always been like that, and while Joanna wasn’t the kind of person to incense her how head, she’s always known what Tywin wanted from her, and how she was supposed to deliver that. 

\--

\-- 259 AC King’s Landing --

While every other girl’s eyes would have grown wide in stupor in front of the greatness of the Red Keep, Joanna’s didn’t. She knew she was one of the most envied girls in the Seven Kingdoms, but she didn’t matter that much either. Because the truth was that everything seemed fake to her, has always been since the first moment she walked into the Red Keep. She wasn’t from some forgotten land in the North, and she wasn’t from the golden shell of the Reach, she never dreamt of knights and elegant lords because she saw them back in the Westland.

There was something that fascinated her, about the Capital, though, but it was something that she never dared to voice. Her septa told her over and over again that politics wasn’t for highborn ladies, but Joanna was different. She knew how to speak about it better than most of the men she met, and the idea of seeing them play out in front of her eyes was maybe the only thing she was enthusiastic about. And yet, rapidly, also this became old, and while Joanna knew she couldn’t complain, a part of her started to think about what would have been living back at home. 

Princess Rhaella was saying something to her and the little court of ladies she surrounded herself with, people whom Joanna would have liked to call friends, but didn’t, ever. Because for her friendship was something more complex, something that must be gained, and none of the young girls she was living with ever did that much. Maybe nobody ever tried to go behind and try to understand the person Joanna really was. And this was the reason why she had never felt alone than when she was around people. 

“Lady Joanna,” The Princess’s voice brought her back, a soft and fake smile clearing its way to the young Lannister’s face. The princess served her a sweeter smile as if she could understand what was lying behind her maid’s eyes. The princess promised them an even more golden cage in Summerhall. The young woman shook her head, focusing back on what the princess was telling her. She saw the woman behind the distant mask she showed to everyone, she saw her crying over her brother and husband, she knew that, possibly, she considered Summerhall just like she did, and yet she couldn’t sympathize with her. And she was well aware that another tense smile would have shown that much. 

\--

\-- 267 AC Casterly Rock --

The cold breeze and the silverish light of the moon seemed to be the only companions to the lady’s silent steps, her light petticoat shone in every shade of the moonlight, playing with her pale skin just like the sand did. She knew it had been an impulsive decision to leave the guard inside, but she also knew that very few people were aware of that secret passage that led from the lord and lady’s rooms. 

It was their secret, one of the many. Joanna didn’t remember who discovered it first. A part of her suspected it was Tywin because that was his home, but she also knew that he wouldn’t have paid attention to something like that, something that he considered not worthy of his time, unconscious of the beauty that lay at the other side of it. It might have been Joanna herself, in one of the visits to Casterly Rock with her parents, to discover that place and to drag Tywin on the very same shore. She couldn’t tell, she didn’t remember and maybe it wasn’t even important that she remembered. 

That was Joanna’s place, and Tywin’s as well, this was the place where the Lion of Lannister dismissed his clothes of Hand of the King in favour of those of husband and father. That was the place where Joanna still saw the man she learned to love as a friend and as a lover. The man who was so different from his own father, the man who was different from the image he showed to the Seven Kingdoms. 

There was another Tywin Lannister, and that one was all for Joanna. Fierce, and yet loving, sharp wits and bright smiles, a man who was courageous and fierce, but who wasn’t afraid to ask for her advice. 

She knew what that meant, she knew that her Lord husband showing her that part of him was a lot. He trusted her, and Tywin was a person who never trusted anyone. But she also knew that he couldn’t show that much, not to the court, not to the King. Because, despite all the years of friendship, Tywin didn’t trust Aerys and Joanna was only glad of that. She didn’t fool herself, though, she knew that it wasn’t for the whispers the kind liked to lit up. She knew Tywin loved her, but she also knew that he saw that very same love as a weakness. He treasured the feeling but never dared to show it. 

The Lady of Casterly Rock often wondered what Rhaella would have said if she’d known how it was like not being afraid of your own husband. But then she remembered that they weren’t friends, they had never been, and while she was loyal to the Targaryens, but she couldn’t be sorry for the other woman, and it wasn’t only for how Rhaella pushed her away from court. With the lingering fingers of that thought still in her mind, Joanna turned her head to the dark sea in front of her. The moon, big and bright, highlighted the small ripples of the otherwise calm surface of the water, infinite and pitch black in the middle of the night. 

The thought alone made a short shiver go through her body and Joanna leaned back in the cloak that was covering her thin dress. Even from the distance, it was impossible not to notice the soft, crimson silk of the outside of it which shone in a changing dance with every movement of Joanna. The fur on the other side of it, barely visible over the rim of the neck was almost golden, a light shade of brown, which was, according to the merchant who offered it to the Lady, the fur of a lion. Joanna learned fast enough that most of the people she met were liars. If she was married to Lord Arryn, the man would have said it was the fur of an eagle. It didn’t matter, she thanked the man for the gift and he seemed happy enough that the Lady of Casterly Rock was wearing something he sold, and he wasn’t a liar about the soft embrace in which it could envelop the person wearing it. Which was what, indeed, mattered. 

“My Lady,” Every other voice would have frightened Joanna, but the one she heard belonged to the only person who had the right to interrupt her peace in a night like that. “I’ve been looking for you.”

“And you found me,” She smiled, turning to take in the figure of the Lord Protector of the Westerland and Hand of the King. Tywin wasn’t wearing the rich double she saw him in before. His body was clad in a white shirt and a pair of dark slings. Winter was warm enough, at least in Casterly Rock, for him to go around without his cloak and Joanna found herself, not for the first time, impressed on how younger Tywin looked when he dismissed his court clothes. He maybe had never been a child, but there was something more juvenile in him, something that she knew far too well would have disappeared in the morning. So she chose to be grateful to the favour of the darkness. She smiled, and then continued, in a whisper. “Before the guards that you probably sent to look for me.”

“I know this palace better,” Tywin said. He wasn’t used to whispering, but, despite everything, his tone was softer, something that he used only with his wife and, sometimes, when he thought she couldn’t see him, with Cersei and Jaime. “I know you better.” 

She moved a step closer the moment Tywin did as well until they were side by side and the man’s arm went to Joanna’s waist, dragging her closer and holding her like that, both facing the dark sea in front of them. From the outside, someone could have said they looked like the statue of some ancient gods, real, and yet intangible, strong and unreachable. But she could feel behind that, the affection, the love, was something warmer than the fur of her cloak. “Did the court arrive?”

She knew the answer, it was the only thing everyone spoke about in Casterly Rock, especially how young King Aerys came without his spouse. The Gods probably listened to Joanna’s requests because the huge banquet was postponed to the day after, once Lord Tytos’ funerals would have been over, but it was hard to ignore the presence of that world she wished she could have left to her back. She knew it was just the wish of a young girl. She was a noblewoman, married to a High Lord, this was her life, but sometimes it was easy to pretend she could just forget and be forgotten. Tywin nodded and his jaw clenched, and Joanna knew it was the last thing the man wanted to speak about. She could understand him, better than everyone else, as always.

“Do you remember the first time we were here?” She asked, instead. 

“I could never forget,” The cutting smile of Tywin’s lips was the one he wore when he played with Jaime on that very same shore and Joanna knew that those few words had been enough to push away all the clouds from her husband’s golden-green eyes. 

\--

\-- 261 AC King’s Landing --

There was something fascinating in the Throne Room, despite the grim silhouettes of the dragons’ skull, despite the high, cruel and frightening shadow of the Iron Throne. It was the show of power that seemed to fill the place. 

And yet, Joanna’s eyes weren’t focused on the figure of the newly crowned King, the man who stood in the Great Temple of Baelor in front of the High Septon, swearing to serve the Seven Kingdoms, taking the role Aerys thought was his since he was old enough to formulate that thought. The idea scared the young lady, while she would have never voiced that. The young king already took whatever he thought it was his, she knew from Rhaella herself, giving him a golden crown and a title to take those things for was the greatest mistake Joanna could think possible, but she knew how things worked, and she knew that the Targaryens already did that much, pretending the name of Old Valyria could save them for the men’s judgment. 

She wasn’t looking at the King, and probably not a lot of people in the room were. All the eyes were for Tywin Lannister, bent at Aerys’s feet and yet looking every inch a king. It wasn’t just pride for her house, which rose in Joanna’s chest, it wasn’t even the love for her betrothed, while those were present, but simply the fascination of Tywin’s figure. He seemed to be made for that role. He was made for ruling and for power and only his deep ambition could second that. Maybe he had always known.

She could hear the whispers of those who still saw with suspicion Tywin’s moves during the Reyne-Tarbeck revolt, but she asked herself how couldn’t they see that there wasn’t anything else to do. What would have people like Jon Arryn have done? Let the vassals of his own father revolt against Casterly Rock, show the Seven Kingdoms that the Lannisters didn’t punish those who turned their back? She knew no innocent had been spared from the destruction Sir Tywin bought on them, but she also knew that was what happened in wars and most of the people inside the walls of Castamere would have taken the weapons against Casterly Rock anyways. 

The men like Tywin were the ones the Kingdom needed. Not people ready to sit and wait, hoping things would have fixed by themselves, and she knew that much. If a woman, someone who, according to most, wouldn’t even know from what side a sword has to be used, could understand that, why couldn’t the High Lords whose fortune was shaped on the battlefield?

When Tywin rose, so did the loud cheering of people wishing a long kingdom to King Aerys and his Hand, Sir Tywin Lannister, but Joanna was no fool, she let her eyes run on the face of the Lords she could see until she stopped them on the lavender coloured ones of Queen Rhaella. Her expression was stern as always, but there was something else, something different in them, something Joanna had never seen. She turned to look at the Lannister girl and then with a harsh movement walked away. 

\--

\-- 267 AC Casterly Rock --

Tywin was moving back and forward in his solarium, almost completely unconscious of the three other people who were seated in the room. The news that the court would have stayed in Casterly Rock until the end of the year was still fresh, and while everyone seemed to be surprised with the King’s choice - the Queen was heavy in her pregnancy when the King left and it was about one or two turns to the moon for Aerys to have a new heir - what seemed to be more and more concerning was Aerys’s ideas to how to face the threat of a war with Bravos. 

And Joanna knew that it was exactly the last missive that reached Casterly Rock to worry her Lord husband. He knew, better than Aery himself, that the entirety of the Seven Kingdoms depended on the gold from Bravos. 

The Targaryens’ chests were as empty as the skulls of the dragons they loved to worship and if the Iron Bank would have stopped to lend money, the people would have asked for the King’s head sooner than later. Planning to war the Free City, though, not only showed that the King little knew about the things of how war worked but was complete madness. And it was Tywin’s role to try and bring him back to reason. 

Kevan cleared his throat, an irritating way to bring Tywin to focus on him, a way which, usually, led to the opposite result. The fact that the Lord of Casterly Rock turned to look at his brother, though, indicated how much bothered he was from the whole situation.

“Can’t you just let him do it?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. If glances could kill, Joanna was sure Kevan would have been bleeding on the precious lysian carpet. “The King will soon enough realize he doesn’t have the money to create his war fleet.”

“And in the meanwhile,” The Master interrupted. “He will ask for more money to the people, telling them it’s Lord Tywin’s fault.”

Tywin nodded but didn’t even look at the man, just going back to his endless wandering. Joanna looked at him, knowing that it must have been something else behind his restlessness. She didn’t like the idea of Aerys and the young Rhaegar around Casterly Rock, and yet she could see there was something deeper bothering her lord husband. Once again cursing the fact that she understood him better than everyone else, all the woman could do at that moment was trying to think of a solution for the more concerning situation. 

“He would do it either way,” He commented, bitterly. This time, though, the words seemed to fall into the silence of the room, though. Joanna knew that she wasn’t in that room because she was the Lady of Casterly Rock, she has been seated in that very armchair a lot of times before. Not everyone could enter Tywin’s solarium, especially not when he was discussing politics and the reason why Joanna was in there was that the man trusted her with her advice, treasured what she told him, too. All the things she hoped to find in the Capital, she had within the walls of Casterly Rock, and a part of her knew he would have brought her even in the Small Council if only she weren’t a woman. 

“The Lannisters are the richest House of Westeros,” She said, one hand holding the other in her lap, her elbows rested on the armrests of the chair she was seated on in the most relaxed position Joanna knew. She knew she had three pairs of eyes on her, scepticism on at least Kevan and the Master’s glances. “We’ve been repeating those words over and over again. It’s time to remind the King.”

Tywin looked at her for a spare moment, as if he was blaming himself for not having thought something that simple. She knew he was thinking about that. She knew that he couldn’t understand how his mind didn’t suggest that solution to him, and maybe that was the reason why she was allowed to advise him as any other Lord ever let their Lady do. She was loyal, to him, to his cause, and to their family. 

Kevan nodded, understanding a moment later. “Lady Joanna is right,” He said. And Tywin nodded again. 

“So we will do,” He stopped to walk, turning toward Joanna herself, still composedly seated on the chair. He moved a step closer to her and took her hand, softly, as if he was handling the most precious treasure he had ever had his hands on and then she led her outside of the solarium, indicating it was about time to end that conversation. Joanna smiled, once they were alone in the hallway, and Tywin pushed his lips against her, claiming hers in a rare kiss which wanted to highlight how grateful he was. 

Joanna knew, somehow, she has always known. 

_Many people said that Lord Tywin Lannister ruled the Seven Kingdoms, but Lady Joanna ruled Lord Tywin._

**Author's Note:**

> As always, kudos and comments are appreciated!
> 
>  **wanna say hi?** come on tumblr [@myrxellabaratheon](http://myrxellabaratheon.tumblr.com/) and [@ironstrange-is-the-endgame](http://ironstrange-is-the-endgame.tumblr.com/)  
>  **do you want a mcu fic written by me?** I'm currently taking commissions due to the fact that I can't work because of COVID-19, so if you are interested just follow the link of my ironstrange tumblr blog and you'll find there all the info.


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